Shas­tri Boodan

Res­i­dents of Cou­va and en­vi­rons demon­strat­ed against pro­posed hikes in elec­tric­i­ty rates.

The demon­stra­tion com­menced at Roop’s Junc­tion and head­ed south along the South­ern Main Road and in­to Lisas Boule­vard where T&TEC cen­tral of­fices are lo­cat­ed.

Cou­va South MP Rudranath In­dars­ingh, who lent sup­port to the protest, said peo­ple are fed up of pay­ing in­creased tax­es and rates say­ing they are be­ing forced in­to pover­ty.

He said the gov­ern­ment can re­ject the rec­om­men­da­tions for the in­crease from the Reg­u­lat­ed In­dus­tries Com­mis­sion since T&TEC is whol­ly owned by the state.

He said, “Food prices are high, per­sons are hav­ing prices to deal with in­creased fu­el costs and im­pend­ing in­creas­es to prop­er­ty tax, wa­ter rates against the back­drop of the un­em­ployed and sin­gle par­ents.”

He said the gov­ern­ment has a moral du­ty to re­ject the rate in­creas­es be­cause it would lead to fur­ther hard­ships to the or­di­nary peo­ple of T&T. In­dars­ingh said the march was or­gan­ised by a group called Friends of Cou­va. They plan to launch a pe­ti­tion against the rate in­crease. They will drop off the signed pe­ti­tion to T&TEC by next week.

Coun­cil­lor Ram­c­hand Ra­jbal Maraj said things have been hard for sev­er­al peo­ple who were em­ployed on the Point Lisas In­dus­tri­al Es­tate. He said a num­ber of com­pa­nies have fold­ed or have been moth­balled.